E-cigarettes are unattractive to non-smokers and there is no evidence they are a gateway to smoking, an expert has told Assembly Members.

“At the moment all vaping does is potentially save lives,” said Professor Peter Hajek, the co-author of a Public Health England-commissioned report which advocated the use of the devices to help people quit smoking.

Prof Hajek told AMs he wouldn’t support a ban on smoking e-cigarettes indoors and said not liking something was not a good enough reason to stop it.

'Remarkably unattractive'

But Prof Hajek, from the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, argued e-cigarettes were not attractive to those who don’t already light up and claimed there were few young people using them who did not already smoke.

“At the moment the evidence we have is that e-cigarettes are remarkably unattractive to non-smokers,” he told a meeting of the National Assembly’s Health Committee, which is investigating the Public Health Bill that includes the ban.

“Nicotine by itself is not that addictive. What is addictive is cigarettes,” he said.

He suggested non-smokers may try e-cigarettes and added: “That is happening increasingly but rather remarkably they don’t progress to daily use.”